13.08.26 – 16.08.26
Liz Rech / Camissa Create
(NOT A) COMMON GROUND / IF THE BONES COULD SPEAK
The site-specific project invites the audience to engage with the colonial legacy of the Hamburger Baakenhafen through a shared performative walk.
The site-specific performative walk (NOT A) COMMON GROUND deals with Hamburg's Baakenhafen as an important post-colonial memorial site. Contradictory collective memories are shared and comment on one another. (Partial) re-enactments, installations and performative interventions bring colonial history to light and form a performative counter-monument that opens up different perspectives on this site of remembrance. A particular focus is placed on the political staging that accompanied the dispatch of the so-called “Schutztruppen” ("protection troops") from Baakenhafen. Shortly thereafter, under the command of Lothar von Trotha, these troops committed genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples in present-day Namibia, which was then known as "German South West Africa."
As part of a joint artistic research, Liz Rech and (NOT A) COMMON GROUND collaborate with the multidisciplinary performance project IF THE BONES COULD SPEAK, a South African-Namibian co-production by Camissa Create (directed by Luke De Kock). IF THE BONES COULD SPEAK traces the journey of the human remains of ancestors who were deported from southern Africa during the German colonial period and the subsequent apartheid era, many of whom are still kept in European and South African institutions. Through performance and sound installation by combining historical research, oral history, and community engagement, the project challenges hegemonic narratives around restitution and centers the perspectives of the communities directly affected.
The audience moves through various sites around Baakenhafen during the performative walk of (NOT A) COMMON GROUND / IF THE BONES COULD SPEAK, invited to imagine new forms of transnational remembrance and reconciliation. The project integrates unsettling legacies and intimate histories into the public memory of the city, creating a space of uneasy togetherness.
Anarchivist Practises on August 16 at 8:00 p.m. at MARKK
A conversation with Annelize Kotze, curator for social history, Lucy Campbell, social scientist and cultural heritage activist, Glen Arendse, artist, and other guests.
Moderation: Dr. Memory Biwa
This conversation will focus on resistant archival practices in the context of current restitution debates. How can hegemonic narratives of restitution be challenged, and how can the perspectives of the affected communities be brought to the forefront? This involves not only acknowledging the scars left by colonialism but also addressing claims for the return of objects and ancestral remains in European collections in a contemporary manner. The term “anarchivist” is a portmanteau of “anarchy” and “archivist” that has emerged in English-language discourse on decolonial work with collections and archives to encourage a more progressive engagement with “the archive” and archival practice.
The conversation will be held in English.
